14 Fury From The Wild

As if the wild animals have been waiting for the two's arrival, right at the moment when they had just set foot on the Beast Forest's ground, a large wild boar came charging towards them from their right. Rasz quickly pulled out Eisen Blue from its scabbard and slashed towards the oncoming attacker. A flash of blue hue temporarily lighted up on the Magic Sword's blade when it struck its victim, which lay dead on the grass in the next second after that one strike.

However, before Rasz and Mia could breathe out a sigh of relief, another two wild boars came charging in, this time right in front of them. Rasz instinctively grasped hold of Mia's hand, who was still standing behind him. Together the two ran towards their left, just as the boars were only a few steps away from them. Another wild boar appeared within their sight, charging towards them as well, combined with its two kin coming from behind, Rasz and Mia now had three wild boars chasing after them.

Still, this was not the only pursuers that were chasing them right on their tails, with every twist and turn they took to avoid getting pummeled, more wild boars came charging towards them. In the end, they had a group of at least 20 wild boars forming a semi-circle in front of them as they back-stepped slowly towards a large tree behind them. This whole time, ever since the first chase, Rasz's had never let go of Mia's hand even once.

Just as the boars thought that they had the two intruders surrounded with no chance of escape, one of them did an unexpected thing. The young man who had been holding tightly onto the young woman standing slightly behind him, finally let go of her hand. He then extended his hand that was wearing a strange glove with five stones attached to it, in front of him. Suddenly without warning a blast of explosive flame launched itself on them, burning them all in an extremely hot fiery blaze.

Rasz had just summoned <Fire> using the Elemental Glove, sending the flame's wrath upon the wild boars without any mercy. All around Rasz and Mia, the wild boars were shrieking in pain as one by one they turned into roasted pork.

With the loud shrieking echoing all around them, Rasz and Mia didn't realize that there were a few pairs of predatory eyes that had been watching them silently, directly above them patiently waiting for the right moment to spring a surprise and deathly attack on the two of them. Despite their quiet movements, somehow, Mia who was the closest to the tree trunk had sensed the slow shifting actions of the creatures perched on the branches of the large tree behind her. Even without turning her head to look, she knew that whatever was prowling on those branches, was going to jump on them any second now.

Mia shifted closer towards Rasz who was standing in front of her, completely oblivious to the dangers closing on them. Grabbing hold onto Rasz's cloak, she whispered to his ear, "Rasz, there is something on top of this tree." Rasz tensed up momentarily when he heard her warning.

"Slowly move in front me," Rasz told Mia, even as he surreptitiously cast a glance towards the branches above them. There, he spied two jaguars and a panther getting ready to pounce on them, and just as Mia took a step to move in front of Rasz, they did. All three big cats jumped onto them at the same moment aiming for the kill, but Rasz already cast a whirlwind using <Wind> which he threw towards their direction.

Without seeing the fruits of his sudden attack, Rasz pulled Mia into another sprint deeper into the Beast Forest. Behind them, a new group of animals was chasing after them, this time it was a mix between a pack of wolves and a family of big cats.

Mia ran as fast as her feet could get her while being pulled by Rasz who had slowed down his pace to match hers. He didn't want to end up dragging her all the way throughout their run, which will make Mia became tired easily. All the while, as Mia focused on her running, Rasz sent blast after blast of magical elements in all directions — forward, backward, upwards, sideways — towards anything that came with the intention to harm them, the Eisen Blue had once again been placed into its scabbard positioned at his right hip.

With every wild animal that was taken down by either <Water>, <Wind>, <Fire>, <Earth> or <Lightning>, another animal will replaced its position, as they all tried to kill or even caused even the least bit of harm on the two intruders that had disturbed the peace within their home.

For the last few weeks, the Bestial Type magical being that had been the Beast Forest's chief for the last 500 years had been causing these animals great distress. Without any reason, not caring whether it was day or night, it will come stomping around within the Beast Forest releasing some of its tension by pounding on everything that had been unfortunate enough to appear within its sight — whether they were trees, rocks or even the animals that hadn't been quick enough to hide before the creature spotted them — will be mercilessly smashed into an unrecognizable state.

The Beast Forest's animal residents were all in a state of absolute terror, scared out of their wits that they might be the next victim of that frightening creature. Though the Bestial being had finally calmed itself down three days ago and had not appeared around them anymore since then, the animals can't help but be cautious, in case it changed its mind. None of them seemed to understand why the Bestial being had been acting like a madman, at least not until this morning when the wind had sent them the smell of the two humans towards their direction.

Unlike the usual passerby, these two humans had stuck around in front of the forest for a length of time, instead of continuing to travel along the pathway journeying passed the Beast Forest. Right then, all of them knew that they were about to welcome a couple of uninvited guests. With fury poisoning all of these animals' hearts and minds at what they had to endure these past few weeks, they launched an assault one after the other, as they aimed to kill the trespassers.

Rasz and Mia who had no idea of how much hate the animals hold against them simply continued their sprint deeper into the heart of the Beast Forest.

Neither of the two knew how long and how far they had been running, but finally, at the very far reaches of their sights, they saw a line of shrubs.

When Rasz saw those shrubs, with his gasping breath, he said to Mia, "Come on, Mia, we're almost there." Mia didn't understand what Rasz had meant, but as Rasz pulled her for the last sprint towards the line of shrubs and beyond that, she simply followed suit, using the last ounce of energy within her body that she had left.

Both Rasz and Mia collapsed on the forest ground at the same time, just as they managed to cross through the shrubs — already too tired and out of breath. They didn't even check nor did they cared whether the group of wild animals had actually followed behind them.

After some of his tiredness lessen, and his breathing and heartbeat became more stable, Rasz turned towards Mia who had collapsed right beside him and asked, "Are you okay, Mia?" Feeling concerned, he glanced over Mia's body, searching for any deep or permanent wounds. He was glad when he found nothing. Other than a few scratches here and there, Mia was fine.

"Th...Those animals... they're not... following...us...?" Being so exhausted, Mia barely managed to turn her head to look at Rasz when she asked the question, as she gasped for more air.

"No, they're not." Back then, when they had first seen the line of shrubs, Rasz had taken a chance to look back at their pursuers. He noticed that they all had stopped dead in their tracks, and seemed to be restless at the sight of the shrubs. Nonetheless, Rasz had still pushed Mia into a sprint towards those shrubs as a precautionary.

"I had only been guessing this from what I read before, but these line of shrubs is actually some kind of border within the Beast Forest," Rasz told Mia his conclusion.

"Border...? For what...?" Mia gasped out the question.

Rasz didn't answer her but instead look further towards the deeper part of the Beast Forest.

Picking up on the meaning of Rasz's silence, Mia followed his gaze, staring into the distance. It was as if they both could already see their goal — towards the home of a ferocious Bestial being — the reason for them being there in the first place.